Walls eat the signal
A wireless signal weakens every time it passes through dense material. A reinforced concrete wall attenuates the signal by 15 to 25 decibels — meaning it swallows more than 95% of its strength, not half of it. And mirrors and metal cabinets reflect it.
That's why you can't measure coverage by area alone. A 400-square-meter villa on one floor is easier to cover than a 200-square-meter apartment divided by concrete walls.
A range extender copies the problem
A range extender (Repeater) receives a weak signal and rebroadcasts it — so it rebroadcasts the same weakness. Worse, it splits the capacity: every device connected to it gets roughly half the speed.
The correct alternative is distributed Access Points, each wired with its own network cable back to a central point. Each point then gets full capacity, and your device moves between them without dropping.
The number of devices, not the number of meters
A home router is designed for a limited number of devices. Today's home has phones, TVs, cameras and smart vacuums — it can pass forty devices.
When the router fills up, no error message appears; instead everything slows down gradually in a way that is hard to explain — so you assume the problem is with the provider.
Wiring before finishing settles it
The best coverage decision is made before the paint goes on: running a network cable to each planned access point location. At that stage the cost is a cable and a conduit; after finishing, the cost is breaking walls open.
This is one of the core items in the AB-570 standard we build to: access-point locations are marked on the drawing, not left to guesswork.
Practical takeaways
- Don't buy an extender before actually measuring coverage
- Ask for a coverage map showing the access-point locations
- Count your devices, not just your home's area
- If you're building: run the network cables before finishing
- Separate the camera network from the guest network